Is Another Minimum Wage Hike Proposal Pending?

A new coalition is speaking out about the harm of wage mandates on New Jersey businesses and low-wage workers.

A minimum wage hike—of almost 80 percent—may be up for debate again in Trenton, worrying business owners across the state. A new coalition, Protect Jersey Jobs, however, is pushing back.

The group released a video outlining the business community’s problems with these proposals:

Wage mandates take payment decisions out of the hands of employers and their workers.

Wage mandates force businesses to decide between raising prices on goods and services or cutting hours and jobs.

When wage mandates drive prices up, senior citizens and other people living on fixed incomes struggle to pay these prices.

Additionally, the coalition’s website notes how these and other issues with wage mandates have played it out in the past. For example, a University of Washington study found that more than 5,000 low-wage jobs in Seattle were eliminated when a $13 per hour wage mandate was passed. Another study released by the Montgomery County government found that a $15 minimum wage would eliminate 47,000 jobs and $396.5 in income over five years, and an Illinois wage mandate study found that a $15 minimum wage could lose the state 382,200 jobs over eight years. Plus, Protect Jersey Jobs says, these kinds of mandates end up hurting the very people they’re intended to help by forcing employers to reduce hours or make layoffs.

NFIB/NJ will continue to monitor any wage mandate measures that may be proposed.